


farewell

by wesseling



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Dark, Gen, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, set after s02e01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 18:30:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3498518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wesseling/pseuds/wesseling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruth can't bear it anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	farewell

 

_Mrs Tyler, your son may have sustained severe brain damage due to the lack of oxygen for 15 minutes._

_We are running some tests. See if and how he reacts to the stimuli. We will do another CT this afternoon._

_Mrs Tyler, I’ll be honest with you._

_This may well be the end._

 

A woman started crying. Then there was silence.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sam put the phone back down on the cradle. The ringing sound had woken him up a couple minutes ago.

But just to make sure he wasn’t in fact still dreaming – oh God, how he wished for that! – he bit his tongue. It hurt. And he could taste his own blood. The blood that was still running through his veins proved that he was still alive.

 

Why couldn’t those damned doctors see that?!

 

He let the blood roll over his tongue, actually liking the taste of it, until the bleeding had stopped.

 

So this wasn’t a nightmare then which he could end by simply waking up and getting out of bed.

 

But when he thought about it that was exactly what he had to do.

 

_Simply wake up._

 

He knew he couldn’t do it.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

_Sam, my darling._

 

_Mummy loves you._

 

_I don’t want you to suffer, so we’ll end this quickly. Just relax. It’ll be over soon. Don’t fight._

 

_Shhh._

 

She was soothing him. She started to hum a tune of a song she used to sing to him whenever he was sick and he had to stay in bed. She always knew Sam hated not being able to do something, when he was forced to rest.

She just knew Sam would have hated it to be a case for nursing care. Not being able to care for himself, not being able to perform his job so he could help others.

Sam loved his job. He loved being a policeman. Always wanted to be one since he was only four years old.   
Her little Sammy, her precious boy.

 

He would have been so devastated not being able to return to the force.

How could he still be a DCI when he was mentally disabled?

 

She wouldn’t put her son through this experience. She’d be a good mother to prevent her son from feeling miserable for the rest of his life. She would do the right thing, in Sam’s interest.

 

Ruth tightened her grip around Sam’s nose and mouth making sure no air could seep through. She could see his chest rising faster now, clenching, his lungs fighting for oxygen.

But other than this nothing happened.

He didn’t try to fight her off, didn’t just magically wake up, didn’t grab her hand to show her that he wanted to live.

 

None of the doctors or nurses came into the room to stop her. To tell her what she was doing was wrong.

 

And so she held her hand in place, tears beginning to stream down her face.

 

With her other hand she caressed his cheek. His skin felt cold.

 

 

She kissed her son goodbye.

 


End file.
